Watercare’s 2013 application with the Waikato Regional Council waits for RMA approval to take an extra 200 megalitres of water to cater to Auckland’s increasing population demands, but 105 applications are ahead of it on the RMA list.
Auckland’s reservoirs were depleted during the very dry summer of 2020, and Watercare, Phil Goff and now Duncan Garner are screaming at the Waikato Regional Council to come to their aid to solve what is a serious lack of infrastructure management in Auckland.
Phil Goff asked a select committee of MPs this week to fast track Auckland’s RMA application but Tainui and others object to interfering with due process by prioritising Auckland’s application.
Duncan Garner grills Russ Rimmington, Chair of the Waikato Regional Council, but gets firmly put in his place.
Duncan:
Why are you being so miserable on this mate, why can’t you give Auckland what they need? The water — and look after a brother up the road?
Russ:
…Look we do backflips to help Auckland and Watercare and really, they can’t even process the water that’s allocated to them. They’ve just got around to doing that in the last three weeks. That’s the truth of the matter. They haven’t got the processing facility at Tuakau and the truth needs to be told. That’s the truth.
Duncan:
That’s fine and I accept that. The truth is Auckland has been underprepared, has been useless, it’s been run by a bunch of clowns for decades. So, we know all this. So, we’ve come to you because you guys are good, you’re smart, you’re right, you’re experts in your field, so can’t you help us?
Duncan admits Auckland was not prepared for its anticipated population explosion and mistakenly assumes that water can be drawn from the Waikato at will. Instead of pointing out the error, Russ gives Garner a history lesson on rural NZ.
Russ:
We are the heartland of the country and this is country… I mean, what’s going to drive us out of Covid-19 is actually the dairy, horticulture, the heartland of NZ, agriculture, just like it did in 1927 – so don’t give us too much grief!
Duncan:
No, but what I’m saying is… I’ll tell you what will hold us back is parochial one-eyed provincial politics which stops us acting as one – and I’m serious about this Russ. We need to act as one or we will not be stronger if we row against each other, we’ve got to row together in the same direction and Auckland needs your help. You can do this – it’s water! It goes out to sea, most of it. Come on!
Whining won’t cut it, neither will “please be kind” or “we’re all in this together”. This is an Auckland problem from start to finish.
Russ:
And that’s what we’ve been doing. Like we make certain that we kind of keep out of the consenting process and aah we… 25… 25 million litres – we did that between the non-stress period, that’s April through to October. Aah, again it’s a process – you haven’t got even the ability to process the water.
We are doing backflips. We have helped in every possible way to get water to Auckland.
But you know, you’ve got major problems with Watercare and they should be taken to task, I tell you right now.
Duncan:
And we know that, and we have them on and I’ve… I have said this as well, Russ, they’re bloody useless and they should have [been] way more organised than this.
So, seven years ago they come cap in hand to you guys and you haven’t even processed that application. A seven-year delay around your council table.
This is a pitiful response from Garner who knows Watercare got the Tuakau treatment plant up and running only three weeks ago. No additional reservoirs have been planned or built to store water when it is plentiful for use when it is not.
Russ:
Yeah, no, it’s not really the council table. By law we’ve taken Raveen [Chief Executive of Watercare since 2014] down to Wellington, our CEO as well. The minister said at that time this is not a beauty parade, it will be done in the order of which they are received. That is the RMA. That is the law. We don’t break the law.
Duncan:
This is the… this is the biggest city in NZ. No, no, stuff the law. The law should be changed then because the biggest city in NZ, the economic powerhouse – and… and dairy is part of this – dairy doesn’t work without Queen Street working as well. And the thing is, if we can’t work as one, we don’t work at all so why can you not fast track the law to allow Auckland to get the water it needs.
Break the law when it suits is an unwinnable argument and one that Russ does not condone. He points out that many have tried and failed to change the law.
Russ:
Well, many ministers have tried to change the law aah… David Parker included – and they have failed. We can’t operate outside the law. What we have done is every possible way to ensure that they do get water, but you can’t take it during the stress period because you know as well as I do there is going to be major problems.
How would you feel if you kind of gone through the list of 100 applicants and somebody in Auckland jumps the queue? That’s not… that is not the way that we operate in this country. We’ve got to be lawful.
Phil Goff might pull it through but there’s going to be major ramifications, I believe, if they pull that off.
Look, Auckland’s got to look at other forms of water retention. You had… water restrictions didn’t come on until May, for heavens sake, we started in December.
You know, you’ve got to get a grip and take some responsibility. They’re being less than honest in the way they’ve portrayed this to the media right through this debacle – and that’s what it is.
If I was Phil Goff, I would take them right to task. I’d have a look at that whole management very, very seriously, they’ve created the crisis – not the Waikato Regional Council.
Phil Goff went to Wellington with the argument that “up to 14,000 jobs could be affected by limitations on water use. We can’t afford that sort of disruption as we recover from the economic effects of COVID-19. This will have a negative impact not only Auckland, but regionally and across the country.” Anything is better than explaining mismanagement, so why not COVID-19?
Waikato Council and Tainui are guardians of the health and long term wellbeing of the Waikato River which Russ raises in the interview following the above discussion.
Russ:
Auckland water is 55% of Auckland water – it’s not 30 it’s 55%. You’ve got two streams going in the Hunua dam that are now 90% you’ve taken from it. It can’t continue. You won’t be happy until there’s no water!
Just like the Murray-Darling river in Australia. You’ve got to take responsibility and perhaps look at desalination. Look at options like water tanks on roofs. 16% can be actually retained like they do in Sydney. None of that’s been digressed. Shower heads – nothing of that’s been digressed (sic).
You just… Watercare absolutely have closed ears – they don’t walk the talk. They’ve got a nice strategic plan but they don’t walk the talk. They’ve got to do that otherwise it will continue every year.
Barry Curtis came to Hamilton years ago with a helicopter – pleaded for water – and what happened? When he went, they did nothing! You’ve just got the dams at Hunua and Waitakeries. You’ve got one and half million people, you’ve got 300 thousand people in the last ten years extra. It can’t… you are bursting at the seams in regard to the infrastructure.
Please! You are not going to take this water. We need it desperately for the aquifers and so forth and for feeding the power house of NZ – and it ain’t Auckland!
You go and have your lattes, but I tell you what – we are actually getting the export dollars to make this country great!
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